10 Tips for Making Natural Light Portraits

4. Getting your positioning right

One of the main advantages of using a studio light set up, is the freedom to move and adjust the height and angle of the light source to meet your requirements. This is obviously impossible when it comes to using natural light, so it’s up to you, the photographer, to utilise the available light as best as possible. When on location, find what you think might be a suitable place for your model to stand and then work out where the sun is in the sky. It’s essential that you don’t make your model look directly towards the sun, as they’ll just squint and get watery eyes! Begin by having them side on to the sun and work from there. A good tip here, is to get your model to turn 360 degrees gradually and for you to follow them as they turn. This way, you’ll be able to observe the change in the lighting to find the best positioning.